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object in which those bodies of men had been defeated in the House of Lords a few years before,---at once extends the description of persons to be relieved, and confers new benefits upon them. The preamble of that act recites the conditions on which the Toleration was tendered to persons dissenting from the Church of England, in Holy Orders, or pretended Holy Orders, or pretending to Holy Orders, and preachers or teachers of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants," and that "many such persons scruple to declare their approbation of, and to subscribe the articles of religion" required to be subscribed by the Toleration Act; and, "for giving ease to such scrupulous persons," enacts

"That every person dissenting from the Church of England, in Holy Orders, or pretended Holy Orders, or pretending to Holy Orders, being a teacher or preacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants, who, if he scruple to declare and subscribe as aforesaid, shall take the oaths, and make and subscribe the declaration against popery, required by the said Act, in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, to be taken, made, and subscribed by Protestant Dissenting ministers, and shall also make and subscribe a declaration in the words following; videlicet,

I. A. B. do solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a Christian and a Protestant, and as such, that I believe that the

Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as 'commonly received among Protestant Churches, 'do contain the revealed Will of God; and that I do receive the same as the Rule of my Doc. 'trine and Practice.'

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Shall be, and every such person is hereby declared to be, intitled to all the exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, granted to Protestant Dissenting ministers by the said Act, made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary; and by an Act, made in the tenth year of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled, an Act for preserving the Protestant Religion, by better securing the Church of England, as by Law established; and for confirming the Toleration granted to Protestant Dissenters by an Act intituled an Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the penalties of certain Laws; and for supplying the defects thereof; and for the further securing the Protestant succession, by requiring the practisers of the law in North Britain to take the oaths and subscribe the declaration therein mentioned; and the Justices of the Peace at the General Session of the Peace to be holden for the county or place where any Protestant Dissenting Minister shall live, are hereby required to tender and administer the said last-mentioned declaration to such minister, upon his offering himself to make and subscribe the same, and thereof to keep a regis

ter; and such minister shall not give or pay, as a fee or reward to any officer or officers, belonging to the court aforesaid, above the sum of sixpence for his or their entry of such minister's making and subscribing the said last-mentioned declaration, and taking the oaths, and making and subscribing the declaration against Popery, required by the said Act, made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, to be taken, made, and subscribed by Protestant Dissenting ministers; nor above the sum of sixpence for any certificate thereof to be made out and signed by the officer or officers' of the said court; and every such person, qualifying himself as aforesaid, shall be exempted from serving in the militia of this kingdom; and shall also be exempted from any imprisonment, or other punishment, by virtue of an Act, made in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the reign of King Charles the Second, intitled, an Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers; and administration of Sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies; and for establishing the form of making, ordaining, and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons, in the Church of England; or by an Act made in the fifteenth year of the same reign, intituled, an Act for relief of such persons as by sickness or other impediment, were disabled from subscribing the declaration in the Acts of Uniformity, and explanation of part of the said Act; for preaching or officiating in any congregation

of Protestant Dissenters, for the exercise of religion permitted and allowed by law."

§. 2." And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That no Dissenting Minister, nor any other Protestant dissenting from the Church of England, who shall take the aforesaid oaths, and make and subscribe the above-mentioned declaration against Popery, and the declaration herein before-mentioned, shall be prosecuted in any Court whatsoever, for teaching and instructing youth as a tutor or school-master; any Law or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding."

The exemption from serving in the militia, first introduced into this Statute, has been continued in all the subsequent militia acts; but the language employed on the occasion has, from time to time, undergone considerable variations, which ought to be specified. Thus, in the Act of the twenty-sixth of the present reign," for amending, and reducing into one Act of Parliament, the laws relating to the militia in that part of Great Britain called England," (26 G. 3. c. 107. §. 27.) "licensed teachers of any separate congregation," are enumerated in the catalogue of those, who shall not "be liable to serve personally, or to provide a substitute to serve in the militia;" where the reader will observe that the word "licensed,' is for the first time employed, no licence being in fact required by any former law from dissenters of any kind, whether ministers or laymen; and the epithet "separate," is likewise for the first time

employed, to qualify the privileges attached to teachers of congregations ;---a word, on which so great a stress has been laid in recent discussions, that a full examination of its meaning and effect will form a part of the present argument, before it is drawn to a close.

The exemption of Dissenting Ministers from serving in the Supplementary Militia, (37 G. 3. c. 3. § 18.), is expressed in exactly the same

terms.

In the forty-second of George the third, c. 90. § 43. (passed during the administration of Mr. Addington,) the phraseology applicable to this point, is materially different. The dissenting teachers thereby exempted from service in the militia are "teachers licensed within the county, riding, or place, to teach in some separate congregation, whose place of meeting shall have been duly registered within twelve months previous to the general meeting appointed to meet in October for the purpose of that Act." This description, which not only adopts the former error of assuming that teachers are licensed, but extends it to the supposition of their being licensed to teach "some separate congregation," appears also to leave it doubtful in what county, riding, or place, the imaginary licence was to have been granted; it may be observed too that the only possible construction, that the words can receive would have operated as a repeal of the Act of Queen Anne before recited; while the expression,

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